Conservation Council SA welcomes the draft Hills and Fleurieu Regional Landscape Plan, and encourages the Plan to include the likely impacts upon South Australian biodiversity from climate projections, noting that this is currently absent.

Conservation Council SA are concerned that the City of Port Lincoln appears ti have largely ignored its environmental stewardship responsibilities in its key planning document for the city. Indeed, the word ‘environment’ only appears twice in the entire draft Plan in a (vaguely) positive way, and most instances of environmental matters – predominantly native vegetation – are routinely described in the negative (with only a few notable exceptions), as if intact and connected ecological services have no meaningful impact upon the prosperity of the city, the amenity of its neighbourhoods, or the wellbeing of its residents. The document reads like it was written by a housing developer, rather than a holistic town plan to ambitiously deliver an attractive place to live for all its citizens.

This is in stark contrast to the ordinary approach being taken elsewhere across the State and Australia, where environmental targets and vision have long been recognised as being key to effective, citizen-centric city planning.

We strongly recommend that the City of Port Lincoln revisit the entire draft Plan to ensure that there is a vision for protecting, restoring, connecting and integrating its unique nature into a modern, future Port Lincoln. Whilst we are not so naïve as to think that environmental matters can always take precedence over every other priority, they are still a key priority to factor into contemporary urban planning for a modern, forward-thinking city – and Port Lincoln is blessed with more environmental assets than most. We urge the City to fully grasp the opportunities that its amazing nature offers its community’s future.

Conservation Council SA's submission focuses on the top priority issues for South Australia, which, like all jurisdictions in Australia, is facing the ongoing and accelerating decline of its biodiversity due to a lack of adequate legal protections and insufficient Federal and State Government investment in nature upon which Australia’s community fundamentally relies for its health, prosperity and cultural identity.

The legislation can be salvaged through amendments but should not be passed in its current form by any party that recognises the how important the environment is to the ongoing wellbeing of our people and our nation.

Our 15, top-level recommendations focus on the following themes:

• Leave the water trigger alone

• Take climate change seriously

• Put limits on Ministerial discretion

• National interest to be in the public interest

• Ministerial decisions must be consistent with National Environmental Standards

• An independent National Environmental Protection Agency

• Fix the ‘pay to destroy’ offsets

On behalf of all concerned South Australians, we urge the Parliament to dramatically amend the environmental legislation before them to increase rather than reduce Australia’s environmental protections.

In particular, we urge our fellow South Australians in the Senate to block any change to the application of the water trigger that would allow upstream states in the Murray Darling Basin to make decisions that will affect the water entitlements, livelihoods and environmental security of our downstream state.

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 20 November 2025 

Australia Must Deliver Real Climate Justice for the Pacific After Losing COP31 Bid

Conservation Council SA has a long history of researching and advocating for the recovery of the unique Fleurieu Swamps Threatened Ecological Community (TEC). Our submission focuses on the need for the Recovery Plan to increase its focus on private landholders (noting that overwhelming majority of the Swamps exist on privately managed land), reference existing public funding and nature market opportunities to contribute to their restoration, and the need to identify priority sites for recovery as well as priority recovery actions for those sites.

The City of Victor Harbor's draft Environment Management Plan needs to consistently adopt goals, targets and KPIs that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), and align with the Objectives, Targets and Actions within “Principle 4: Our environment is protected and enhanced” of the recently approved Victor Habor Urban Growth Management Strategy 2050.

The draft Plan also needs to be updated to include references to the City's promised canopy and green space targets.

Conservation Council SA supports the proposed retention of the Regulated and Significant Trees Overlay and Native Vegetation Overlay, and recommends that all watercourses and significant drainage lines are retained as parks and/or green spaces with at least a 50-metre buffer on either side.

Further, noting the environmental and operational cost sustainability challenges with septic tanks and Community Wastewater Management schemes across South Australia, SA Water-managed wastewater should be connected to the area before large-scale development occurs.

Conservation Council SA recommends that the Strategy has stronger alignment with Australia's commitments to the Global Biodiversity Framework under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, including the collective commitment by all Australian governments to Australia's '30 by 30' on land commitment (protecting 30% of Australia's lands by 2030).

Additionally, there are opportunities to elevate the CAR principles ('comprehensive, adequate, representative') further in the Strategy, and the description of OECMs (Other area-based Effective Conservation Measures) needs to be tightened to accurately align with Australia's National OECMs Framework.

From 26 September to 12 October we're joining an incredible line-up of nature lovers for this year's Nature Festival!

The current algal bloom is not an isolated or random event. It is a direct manifestation of the climate crisis - driven primarily by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels - coal oil and gas – and compounded by legacy land and water management issues. Fossil fuels are supercharging climate change, which in turn is intensifying the floods, upwellings and marine heatwaves that fuel blooms of this magnitude.

In this submission to the Senate Inquiry into the SA Algal Bloom, Conservation Council SA outlines the key issues arising from investigations into South Australia's 2025 major algal bloom.